(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mixing and grinding technologies, and more particularly to a mixing and grinding mechanism for mixing and grinding fluid paint or other fluid slurry. The invention relates also to a mixer grinder using the mixing and grinding mechanism.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Various different paints and slurries are known. A paint manufacturing process generally includes: (1) material mixing step to mix pigments, resins, additives, solvents in a mixer; (2) material grinding step to grind the mixed materials into a uniformly distributed status with a roller mill 10 (see FIG. 1) or ball mill machine; (3) adjusting and toning step to adjust the viscosity and color the material thus obtained in step (2) in a mixing barrel 201 of a paint-mixer machine 20 by a stirrer 202 by means of adding different ratios of solvents to the material; and (4) filtering and packing step.
The application of the aforesaid paint manufacturing process and machine arrangement has drawbacks as follows:
(1) The roller mill 10 and the paint-mixer machine 20 are two separate machines. Similar designs of the roller mill 10 can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 258,027; U.S. Pat. No. 3,208,677; U.S. Pat. No. 2,872,122. Similar designs of the paint-mixer machine 20 can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,386; U.S. Pat. No. 2,137,547; U.S. Pat. No. 401,306; U.S. Pat. No. 8,616,762; U.S. Pat. No. 2,027,297; U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,938. Thus, various independent machines need to be installed in the manufacturing line, increasing the manufacturing cost and occupying much factory space.
(2) In the adjusting and toning step, pigments may need to be applied, however, the stirrer 202 of the paint-mixer machine 20 (see FIG. 1) does not provide a grinding function. Similar designs of the structure of the stirrer 202 can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 7,384,188; U.S. Pat. No. 2,636,643; U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,390; U.S. Pat. No. 1,775,345. According to the aforesaid prior art design, another grinder is needed to grind pigments before they are added to the paint-mixer machine 20, thus complicating the manufacturing process.
(3) After the grinding through the roller mill 10, a part of the material may not have been finely ground, however, in the mixing operation through the paint-mixer machine 20, the material cannot be ground into fine grade.